Jones’ Heroics Lift Revs to Victory

Jermaine Jones came to the New England Revolution’s rescue on Friday at Sporting Park – and not a moment too soon.

With time ticking away in tied game, Jones blasted a long-range strike in the 85th minute to restore a Revolution lead that had been chopped down by a pair of second-half Sporting Kansas City strikes, helping his club secure a dramatic 3-2 win.

Jones’ tally cancelled out a lackluster second half performance by the Revolution, which saw them take their 2-0 first half lead—furnished by goals from Kelyn Rowe and Jose Goncalves—and flush it away by allowing Kansas City’s Dom Dwyer and Paulo Nagamura to equalize in a two-minute span.

The win is the Revolution’s sixth in their last seven matches, and puts them in a tie with Kansas City for second place in the Eastern Conference. With Jones in the starting lineup, the Revolution are now 4-0-0. The result also marked the locals’ first ever victory at Sporting Park, as well as their first road win against Kansas City since April 9, 2008.

The Revolution lined up in their familiar 4-1-4-1 formation, but with a few noticeable wrinkles to the starting XI. Andrew Farrell moved from right back to central defense in place of an injured AJ Soares while Kevin Alston took over at Farrell’s position. Kansas City, who entered the match on a two-game home losing streak, was without All-Star center back Aurelien Collin.

New England bossed the opening half with speedy play and decisive passes and runs into the offensive third. Dwyer uncorked a fifth minute freekick wide of goal for the game’s first chance, which was followed up by non-stop attacks by the Revolution.

In the 22nd minute, Jones ran down the right flank and served the ball to the back post for a wide open Rowe. With Kansas City’s back line and their goalkeeper ball-watching, Rowe, unmarked, slammed a shot between the legs of Kronberg and the right post before it finally bulged the net. It was Rowe’s fourth goal of the season.

Goncalves doubled the Revolution’s lead in the 35th minute off a Kansas City giveaway in midfield. Jorge Claros played former Revolution midfielder Benny Feilhaber following a throw-in, as Goncalves rushed in to steal the ball away. Goncalves trapped the ball, left Feilhaber dispossessed on the turf, then ran up the spine of Kansas City’s midfield and back line before going one-on-one with Matt Besler and sending a left-footed shot to the inside of the far post for the 2-0 lead and his first tally of the year.

The tables turned in the second half as Kansas City stopped submitting and asserted themselves offensively. In response, the Revolution allowed their hosts mount a series of attacks and stayed penned in deep.

In the 54th minute, Kevin Ellis played Paulo Nagamura in behind the defense off a pass from behind half field. Nagamura entered the penalty area, then fired over Bobby Shuttleworth to cut the lead to 2-1.

Two full minutes hadn’t yet passed before the equalizer appeared. Graham Zusi played the ball wide left to Toni Dovale, who crossed to the back post looking for an open player. Nagamura ran onto the service and headed the ball across the face of goal to Dwyer, who redirected the service into the back of the net easily. The goal, which capped off a dream response by Kansas City, was Dwyer’s team-high 20th of the season.

Prior to Jones’ game-winning strike, the Revolution tried to counter against Kansas City’s attack, but were unsuccessful. Shuttleworth, who hasn’t notched a cleansheet since Aug. 30, stayed in form and collected four saves. Shutteworth stopped drives by Zusi (59′), Dwyer (62′), and Nagamura (64′), all after Kansas City equalized.

It was Jones, though, that stuck with the play and helped the Revolution in transitions, even after Kansas City discovered their offense. On the decisive play, Nguyen took control of the ball during a couner-attack. He played a simple, short pass to Jones, who took two touches, saw that he was uncontested, then uncorked the deciding strike with the match nearing its conclusion.

The Revolution next play on Oct. 4 at Gillette Stadium against the Columbus Crew.

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About Julian Cardillo

Julian Cardillo is an American sports journalist who has contributed to New England Soccer Today since its inception. He has also written for The Boston Globe, Boston.com, The Advocate, Soccerly, and a number of other outlets. He was a foreign correspondent for Boston.com in 2012, covering AS Roma from Italy. He has contributed to Roma Radio and Yahoo Sports Radio. Julian speaks English, Italian, and French. He has a Politics degree from Brandeis University, where he is currently taking graduate classes. Follow him on twitter @juliancardillo